Supported Standing Poses with a Chair – Weekly Intermediate Class 448

This 30-minute class uses a yoga chair to explore a series of foundational standing poses in a supported and highly instructive way. Rather than simply making the poses easier, the chair creates greater stability, allowing you to refine alignment, improve balance and experience key actions with more clarity. Once balance is no longer the primary challenge, attention can shift towards opening the hips, lengthening the spine and distributing weight more evenly throughout the body.

The chair is used in a variety of ways to enhance familiar poses. It provides a firm base from which to gain traction and create space in areas that can otherwise feel restricted, particularly through the hips, hamstrings and spine. In poses such as Trikonasana and Parsvakonasana, the added support helps reveal alignment that may be difficult to access in the classical form. In the Warrior poses, it allows you to stay longer and work more deeply without unnecessary strain, while more demanding poses such as Parivrtta Trikonasana become steadier and more accessible. Parsvottanasana also benefits from the support needed to maintain a longer spine and more open chest despite tight hamstrings.

The class concludes with a gentle chair-supported twist to release the spine, followed by a relaxing chair variation of Savasana that offers a soothing finish, particularly for the lower back. Suitable for a wide range of practitioners, this sequence is especially valuable for anyone working with stiffness, reduced balance, lower back sensitivity or developing strength, while also providing experienced students with an excellent opportunity to refine technique and practice standing poses with less fatigue. It is also an ideal sequence for hot weather, when the support of the chair allows you to enjoy the benefits of standing poses with less physical effort.